Here, you are urged and encouraged to run your mouths about something important.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Awesome: Archbishop with Guts!

Newly appointed bishop for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Charles J. Chaput, is going after the liberal media on its handling of religious issues, social issues, and even the Arab Spring. This is very refreshing to see from a Catholic leader. Frankly, it's in such short supply that the absence of such men in the Catholic church likely has something to do with why it gets such a bad rap. Pope Benedict XVI recently moved Chaput from the Archdiocese of Denver. If this was a promotion, it could help direct other bishops down a similar path. It would also demonstrate that the Pope endorses such assertiveness from Bishops.

The news outlets CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and MSNBC do not “provide trustworthy information about religious faith,” said Philadelphia’s incoming Archbishop, Charles Chaput, at the Catholic World Youth Day ongoing this week in Madrid, Spain.

Chaput, the former Archbishop of Denver, made his remarks in an address on religious freedom to a group of more than 10,000 young pilgrims in Madrid on Wednesday. As initially reported in First Things, Chaput told the audience that, “In the United States, our battles over abortion, family life, same-sex ‘marriage,’ and other sensitive issues have led to ferocious public smears and legal threats not only against Catholics, but also against Mormons, evangelicals, and other religious believers.”

“And with relatively few exceptions,” he said, “the mass media tend to cover these disputed issues with a combination of ignorance, laziness, and bias against traditional Christian belief.”

Then Chaput went after the liberal media for its coverage of and bias toward the Arab Spring:

Archbishop Chaput noted that the media gave a lot of coverage to the so-called “Arab Spring,” involving civil unrest in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. “But very little of that coverage has mentioned that the turmoil in Muslim countries has also created a very dangerous situation for Christians and other religious minorities across North Africa and the Middle East,” he said. “In Egypt, angry mobs have attacked Christian churches and monasteries, burning them to the ground and murdering the people inside.”

In addition, he said there has been widespread anti-Christian violence in Iraq, Syria, and Tunisia, but little news coverage of this in the U.S. media, adding that it is illegal to wear a crucifix or own a Bible in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, said the Archbishop, in Pakistan, “Christians face frequent discrimination, slander, beatings and even murder.”

It is long since overdue for Christians to stand up for themselves. Chaput - and perhaps the Pope - see it the same way.